You know those nursing covers that they sell at Target? Last year at this time, I bought one, and it was okay -- it served its purpose. It wasn't really worth $30, but I kept it stashed in my purse and used it to nurse Gram in public (it also came in handy for mopping up spit up).

My problem with the nursing cover was that it was too thin. So when my friend recently had a baby, I decided to make her one that was more substantial. I started with my old store-bought cover as a guide, made the one for her slightly larger, and used a hospital receiving blanket as a liner to give the cover more weight (and to make it more absorbent, in case she faces the same volume of spit up that Gram produced). I used the hardware from mine, but I bet you could buy everything you need at a good craft store.

Here's the finished product:

The most important part is to put some boning in the top so that the cover pokes out enough to let the nursing mother peek in at her baby. The plastic piece that came inside my store-bought cover looked like this:

Does anyone know what that is or how to buy it?

Here are the pieces I used to make a tie around the neck:

If you wanted to keep it simple, you could use two nice pieces of ribbon for the ties, and the mother could just tie them in a bow before slipping it over her head.

Here's the back of the cover, with the hospital receiving blanket as a liner:

I slipped the plastic peice from the old cover into the top between the ties, and then sewed around it to make sure it wouldn't move too much.

Overall, I think it's an easy and thoughtful project to sew for a new mom.